Oct 19, 2009

Simultaneous in-plane and out-of-plane exchange bias using a single antiferromagnetic layer resolved by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism

Josep Nogués, leader of the Magnetic Nanostructures groupt at CIN2 (ICN-CSIC), and Pietro Gambardella, leader of the Atomic Manipulation and Spectroscopy group at CIN2 (ICN-CSIC), together with other researchers, published the work 'Simultaneous in-plane and out-of-plane exchange bias using a single antiferromagnetic layer resolved by x-ray magnetic circular dichroism' on Applied Physics Letters.

This is a study of exchange bias in ferromagnet/antiferromagnet/ferromagnet (FM/AFM/FM) trilayers, with in-plane and out-plane easy axes. Using element-specific x-ray magnetic circular dichroism, it demonstrates that simultaneous in-plane and out-of-plane exchange bias can be induced using a single antiferromagnet and zero field cooling, whereas field cooling only induces exchange bias to the layer with easy axis parallel to the cooling field. The results further evidence the presence of pinned uncompensated moments in both the FM and AFM layers, implying that the AFM layer is capable of supporting uncompensated spins in two orthogonal directions at the same time.

+ doi:10.1063/1.3232213